How many days do you need in Taiwan?

What the numbers leave out is that almost two thirds of the island is mountain. The cities are pressed onto a western coastal plain, the east coast sits on the far side of a range with 268 peaks above 9,840 feet (3,000 m), and the roads that cross the middle are serious pieces of engineering that close when the weather says so. Taiwan is two hours wide and two weeks deep.

Here is what each length actually buys.

Five days: Taipei and one thing

Five days is a city break with an excursion, and it works.

Three full days in Taipei covers the National Palace Museum, which holds the imperial collection moved from Beijing in 1949 and is one of the world’s great museums, Longshan Temple at dusk when it is a working temple rather than a sight, Dadaocheng and Dihua Street for the old merchant city, Beitou for hot springs inside the metro system, Elephant Mountain for the skyline at sunset, and the night markets, which are the point rather than the garnish.

The fourth and fifth days take one excursion. The honest options are Jiufen and the north-east coast, which is beautiful and extremely crowded on a weekend afternoon, or Yangmingshan, or a day in the tea country at Pinglin or Maokong, which we would choose over Jiufen most of the time.

What five days does not buy is the east coast. Taipei to Hualien is three hours or so on a train that sells out, and putting it into a five-day trip means one night there and a wasted pair of half days.

Seven days: Taipei, the east, and out

Seven days is where Taiwan starts becoming Taiwan rather than a good Asian city.

The shape: three nights Taipei, two or three nights Hualien and the east coast, and a return. Hualien is the reason to cross the mountains: whale watching in season, the East Rift Valley inland with its rice terraces and hot springs, Liyu Lake, and Highway 11 south along the coast with the Pacific on one side and the range on the other.

Taroko Gorge is the name everyone knows on this coast, and it needs a plain paragraph. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake off Hualien on 3 April 2024 caused severe rockfall and structural damage through the gorge, and the national park has been reopening in stages, with some trails, roads and facilities open and others not. We will not publish a list here that will be wrong by the time you read it. What we do is check the current position with our partner and with the park at the time we quote, build the day around what is genuinely open, and say plainly if the answer is not much. The alternative on the same coast, and it is a good one rather than a consolation, is Mugua River Gorge and the Sanzhan river south of Hualien.

Seven days does not reach the south. Tainan and Kaohsiung need three days between them and they are the best eating on the island.

Ten days: the working answer

Ten days is what we recommend most often, and it covers Taipei, the east coast and one southern city comfortably, with a mountain night included.

The shape we build most often: three nights Taipei, three on the east coast, one at Alishan or Sun Moon Lake, two in Tainan, one back in Taipei or out of Kaohsiung. That is classic Taiwan in 10 days.

What ten days does not do is close the island loop. Attempting Taipei, the east, the south-east, the south, the centre and the mountains in ten days means five hotel changes, several early trains and a day lost to the high road over the middle. It is the most common overreach and it is the one we most often remove.

Fourteen days: the number that closes the circle

Fourteen days is the length at which Taiwan stops making you choose.

It closes the island loop: Taipei, the north-east, Hualien, Taitung and the south-east, Kenting or straight to Kaohsiung, Tainan, Alishan or Sun Moon Lake in the centre, and back north. It allows two mountain days rather than one, so both a forest morning at Alishan at around 7,200 feet (2,200 m) and the high road over Hehuanshan, where the pass reaches about 10,745 feet (3,275 m) and several short peaks are walkable in a morning with no permit at all.

It also allows the two nights that make the difference to the trip’s texture: one hot spring property with dinner and breakfast included, and one homestay in the east or the tea country.

Our two-week route argues one version of this properly, and Taiwan by rail in 14 days does the whole loop without a car at all.

Twenty-one days: the islands, or a second country

Three weeks is where the outer islands become sensible rather than a gamble. Penghu in summer for beaches and basalt, Green Island for snorkelling and a saltwater hot spring, Orchid Island for the Tao people and a culture unlike the main island’s, Matsu and Kinmen for a very different history. All of them are weather-dependent and boats cancel, which is exactly why they belong in the third week and not the first.

The alternative use of three weeks, and the one we build more often, is Taiwan and Japan. Three hours by air from Taipei to Tokyo or Osaka, two completely different countries, and our own Tokyo office runs the Japanese half. See Taiwan and Japan in 21 days.

What actually consumes the days

The east coast train. Taipei to Hualien is around three hours and the seats sell out, especially at weekends and around holidays. The booking window opens a set number of days ahead and we book the morning it opens. This is one of the specific things a ground team earns its keep on, and in Taiwan that team is a long-standing local partner rather than one of our own offices, which we say on every page.

The mountain crossings. Any day that goes over the middle of the island is a full day, not a transfer. The high road is spectacular and it is five hours of driving with stops.

The high speed rail stations. Tainan and Chiayi high speed stations sit outside the city centres with a shuttle connection. It is fifteen or twenty minutes each way and it is worth knowing when you plan a morning.

Hotel changes. Every one costs a morning. We hold a ten-day trip to four changes and a fourteen-day trip to six.

Weather. In typhoon season, roughly July to October, we hold an alternative for every exposed day. In practice that means keeping two half days genuinely free, which is a use of time and a good one.

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Keep reading

• Taiwan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• The best two-week route through Taiwan
• What does a trip to Taiwan really cost?
• What we would skip in Taiwan
• Taiwan by rail in 14 days
• All our Taiwan trips

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